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Third day of school closures in Fraser Cascade

For the third day straight, children in School District 78 have been asked to stay home from school.

The district-wide closure is a result of continued inclement weather throughout the region. Schools affected include Boston Bar, Hope, Agassiz and Harrison Hot Springs.

The closure started on Monday afternoon, when many schools in the district chose to send children home a few hours early, as snow began to accumulate in large amounts.

On Tuesday, high winds and continued snowfall made roads treacherous and Wednesday provided more of the same. Temperatures have dipped down to -16 degrees in Agassiz, and even lower at higher elevations. Added to the cold temperatures is an Arctic outflow, causing temperatures of about -30 degrees with the windchill. The Arctic outflow warning has been in effect most of the week.

Friday is a planned professional development in the district, so students won't be worrying about school until Monday morning. However, planned development activities for teachers and staff has now been cancelled as well.

The Fraser Cascade district website reads: "Due to poor weather conditions, the District/Native Ed Learning Activity Day and all associated activites have been cancelled."

While no new snow has fallen in many areas of the eastern Fraser Valley today, Environment Canada is calling for between 10 to 20 cm Thursday.

Meanwhile, roads were treacherous for much of the week, with whiteout conditions from dry, blowing snow. The weather conditions contributed to several traffic snarls and accidents on Tuesday and Wednesday, including an incident between a pickup truck and a BC Transit bus in Agassiz.

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